EU to Sue France over the Gypsy Expulsions

Oct.1,2010

The Gypsy issue has been widely discussed in France over the last few weeks. The French government decided to expel over 1,000 illegal Gypsies residing in numerous camps in different parts of the country.

It was just announced that the European Union plans to sue France over the alleged violation of their rights. Since the majority of the Gypsies, who are being deported are citizens of Bulgaria and Rumania (both members of the Union), the Union officials claim that the French authorities prevent the free movement of the European citizens.

The lefties of all colors and persuasions are on the same bandwagon as well. They have demonstrated against the deportation accusing the French of discrimination against a specific ethnic group.

Is there any merit to those accusations or the legal threats?

Well, for starters, the Union is blatantly meddling into the internal affairs of a sovereign country, which is trying to apply the existing laws. The Gypsies are citizens of Rumania and Bulgaria, but the people from those countries are still not allowed to work in France (several other European countries have similar laws). Nobody is stopping them from traveling, but they are treated as tourists, with a maximum allowed stay of three months.

After that period one can stay in the country only if he or she is legally employed. The Gypsies are not employed and do not plan to work.

Most of the people living in those camps are involved in petty crimes (pick pocketing), begging and prostitution. Many in the West have that romantic idea about the Gypsies as a proud and independent people, who do not want to settle down. However, that independence and refusal to adapt most often takes the form of a life of crime, especially in Eastern Europe.

Of course, it is wrong to state that all Gypsies from Rumania and Bulgaria are criminals. That is far from the truth, there are many who have settled and are employed, but they are not those who would leave their country and set up a camp in the middle of nowhere. Beside that, the camps are usually built on private property, there is no running water, they are dirty and within few short days they bury the surroundings in garbage. That is a health hazard, which even the most forgiving lefties cannot ignore.

The amusing part of the whole issue is that the Western countries have always chastised the two Balkan states over their failure to integrate Gypsies. Yet when they were faced with the same problem and had those Gypsies in their midst, they quickly forgot the preaching of tolerance and tried to get rid of the problem by sending them back.

In addition to that, the ordinary people in the West also did not provide any common sense approach on the integration of the illegal immigrants: despite their slogans to help the illegals, they vigorously oppose any measures that are supposed to make the social spending more responsible. The sad truth is that the welfare state is broke, not because the economy is down, but because the social spending is so high that no amount of revenue can cover it.

All that means very little to the bloated bureaucracy in Brussels, they simply want to force a country to comply with elitist principles for which there is no money. With an attitude like that, I wonder how long the European Union will survive.